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Gayle Acton

Associate Faculty
— Ph.D.

Associate Professor

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Biography

Biography

Dr. Acton is an Associate Professor of Adult Health Nursing. Her research program concerns the older adult client, and in particular, caregivers of adults with dementia. She is interested in those interventions and resources that assist caregivers to cope more effectively with caregiving duties, and thus, achieve a higher level of well-being. Presently she is conducting a comprehensive meta-analytic evaluation of published and unpublished research testing interventions for family caregivers. In addition, Dr. Acton is co-investigator on a study of communication with persons with dementia. In the past she has investigated the resources of affiliated-individuation, hope, self-worth, and perceived support, evaluating their relationship to stress and well-being in caregivers. She has studied the role of self-transcendence in the caregiving process and am currently completing a study of spirituality and the role it might play in helping caregivers cope with stress and burden. Presently, she is expanding her view of resources to include health-promoting activities and she has conducted a secondary analysis of self-care activities and health-promoting outcomes in caregivers and a primary investigation of self-care in healthy community-dwelling adults. Dr. Acton will be testing a model of health promotion in community-dwelling older adults and family caregivers. She is also the founding member of the Institute of Gerontology at The University of Texas at Austin.